HYDERABAD: The Indian Medical Association has opposed the proposed amendments to the Indian Medical Council (Amendment) Bill and expressed fears that the Government might take over the regulatory body.

Addressing a press conference here on Sunday, IMA secretary-general Vinay Aggarwal said the Bill sought to empower the Government to nominate, dismiss and dissolve the Council and run it by an appointed body. Besides, the Government's decision would be a direction.

Dr. Aggarwal said regulatory bodies world over were independent of government control. Similarly, the MCI should be independent and autonomous. The Health Minister, A. Ramadoss, could take action according to provisions of the Act if the MCI was corrupt as claimed by him. The Act had provisions to look into irregularities by a three-member body, two nominated by the Government and another by MCI.

Regarding the reluctance of doctors to serve in rural areas, he said the Government should make it mandatory and claimed that the IMA was willing to offer its services to strengthen the rural health services.

Dr. Aggarwal said the IMA was keen to play a major role in the healthcare scenario. Most of the government programmes failed due to non-involvement of private medical professionals at the planning stage and not due to lack of sincerity. The IMA has been urging authorities to involve it in various schemes. Now the Government too realised that the programmes could not be achieved unless private doctors were involved.

He said the Government had designated IMA as a nodal agency to implement the Revised National TB Control Programme (RNTBC) and posed a Rs.100-crore proposal put forth by it to the Global Fund to fight AIDS, TB and malaria. Under the proposal to be implemented in 11 States in the first phase, more TB diagnostic centres would be opened, the medical community sensitised and DOT (direct observed therapy) centres set up in the private sector too.

Dr. Aggarwal said under the "Aao Gaon Chale" programme launched by the IMA in June last year, 400 villages were adopted by its branches in various parts of the country. Their number would be increased to 1,000 later. Following the findings of a study conducted by the Nutrition Foundation of India that 92 per cent of Indians were anaemic, the IMA had launched a massive "anaemia-free India campaign" from July 1.

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